Fire: Evacuate in 3 Minutes

3 minutes: that's the average time you have to realise there's a fire and to evacuate your home once it starts.
Would you make it?

A fire! What should you do?

Do you know what to do to urgently evacuate the occupants of your house or flat in the event of a fire?

More than half of all fires are caused by human error.
Fires often produce a huge amount of smoke. This smoke won't just stop you breathing or make you suffocate — it will also darken your home and turn it into a real maze. According to fire brigade statistics, there is on average only 3 minutes between the start of a fire and the moment the home becomes dangerous because of the flames or the smoke ... which is very little time to react!

Have you ever tried to leave your home by feeling your way in the dark?
Did you manage it without bumping into furniture or objects?
Now imagine the same scenario in an emergency, in a full-blown panic!

Prevention

Smoke detectors

Aside from the basic precautions any responsible household should take to avoid any risk of fire, one of the essential prevention tools is the smoke detector. Their use is regulated differently depending on whether you live in the Brussels-Capital Region, in Wallonia or in Flanders.
Get approved detectors (CE and EN 14604 labels), place them in different spots around your home and check that they work on a regular basis.

The evacuation plan

Another prevention measure very few of us think about is drawing up a household evacuation plan. Ideally, it should take the following points into account:

• On a floor plan of your house: mark the places where you can get out (doors, windows, passageways).
• Mark the simplest route on the evacuation plan — the most natural way to leave the premises as quickly as possible. Start upstairs and favour the route towards the street side (that's where help will come from).
• Repeat the exercise with a second evacuation plan in case the first one becomes unreachable because of the fire.
• Make sure this route is never blocked by objects (tables, chairs, bikes, prams, boxes, toys, etc.) or by locked doors or windows that are hard to open.
• Never plan to evacuate using the lifts.
• Go through your evacuation plan with the other occupants and agree on a number of points: - who looks after the children, the sick or less able-bodied people, and the pets? - who calls for help (112) and how? - where does everyone gather outside the house, in a safe spot?

Something we hope never happens to you...

If you were ever to face a fire, keep a few basic rules in mind:

• While evacuating, close the doors and windows of the rooms you leave, if you can.
• Avoid breathing in smoke as much as possible: cover your mouth and nose with a damp cloth. As smoke tends to rise towards the upper floors, consider moving on all fours along the walls.
• Make sure the room you're heading to isn't already on fire (if it is, the door and door handles will be hot).
• Once you're safe outside your home, don't try to go back inside to fetch anything. If someone has unfortunately stayed inside, firefighters are best placed and equipped to handle the rescue.

A little game that could be life-saving

Use a quiet family moment to draw up the floor plan of your house with your children and get them involved in the evacuation plan.
For them it will be a game — for your family, it could one day save your life!